Joe Murray Almost Wins Inside the Beltway and Huck PAC Announces it's VA Endorsements

Last night in Virginia's special election to replace retiring Delegate Brian Moran in the 46th district Republican Joe Murray only lost by 16 votes.  He ran a smart and competitive campaign inside the beltway and almost won.  People are already analyzing the impacts of the Democrats almost losing a seat in Northern Virginia that Obama carried with 75% of the vote in November.  At the very least the Democrats will have to think twice when they think about picking up and holding seats in NOVA this year.  Also Delegate Moran, who is running for the Democratic nomination for Governor, will have to work extra hard to convince Democrats that he can win in NOVA since he hardly held onto his own seat.

One thing I noticed while following the race for Brian Moran's seat was that the Democrats seemed to be taking the race for granted.  The Democratic Party of Virginia's website spent all its time celebrating its 2008 victories and never prominently mentioned any of the past three special elections on its website.  On the other hand, the RPV was promoting the race on its homepage as well as on its networking site.  The next time the state Democratic Party ignores a race in NOVA the consequences may be even more severe.   

Huck PAC just recently made its first endorsements for the 2009 election cycle.  It endorsed Bob McDonnell for Governor, and Ken Cuccinelli for Attorney General.  With its new National Volunteer Team it will be interesting to see how much of an impact these endorsements have on the race.  If nothing else these endorsements should help activate the Virginia grassroots supporters who campaigned for Mike Huckabee, and get them campaigning for Bob McDonnell and Ken Cuccinelli.  With the recent endorsements from Bobby Jondal and Rudy Giuliani for Bob McDonnell it is also great to see national Republican figures rallying around Bob McDonnell.

Hucks Army 2.0?

In a recent e-mail sent out by Huck PAC, Mike Huckabee announces the launch of a National Volunteer Team. The heart of the e-mail says, 

I wanted to email you today to announce the launch of our National Volunteer Team. Our goal is to identify volunteers nationwide, organize into local groups in every county of the United States and then assist Huck PAC endorsed candidates.

We have divided the country into regions and will begin recruiting leadership in every state and county. Ultimately, these leaders will be responsible for building local volunteer teams, setting up events, organizing phone banks, knocking on doors and much more. Our goal is to have at least one Huck PAC group leader in every county in the nation by the end of 2009.

This is one part of our plans but is a very important part. We want to make a difference locally in the races of the candidates we are supporting (as we did with Saxby) and we believe having a volunteer team in place will make a big difference. We had a strong record of candidate support in 2008 but we weren't satisfied with the results.

The rest of the e-mail included specific ways to get involved, and further explanation of the program.

Many indicators point to the fact that Mike Huckabee will run for president again down the road.  Among all this talk though, many wonder how Huckabee will continue to stay relevant over the next few years.  The National Volunteer Team seems like a creative way to strengthen Governor Huckabee's bid to run for the Republican nomination for president down the road.  If this initiative is anywhere near close to successful and the National Volunteer Team is able to have teams in most of the counties in America by the 2010 midterm elections, it could become a powerful force for the Republican Party during those crucial elections.  If Governor Huckabee can create a force that helps elect conservative Republicans he could portray himself as a party builder, and someone who has expanded the conservative movement.

While creating a national network of volunteers who will support conservative candidates in a year seems extraordinarily difficult, Mike Huckabee and his team are probably uniquely positioned to create this group.  His presidential bid took him from being an unknown to receiving the second most delegate votes in the Republican primary.  His electoral victories included a win in Iowa and an impressive second place finish in states won on Super Tuesday.  Much of this success was the result of a passionate and well organized grassroots comprised of Fair Taxers, homeschoolers, social conservatives, and others.  These supporters formed a highly organized grassroots force known as Hucks Army.  Governor Huckabee often referred to this group as his "secret weapon" and attributed much of the success for his campaign to this group.  With a whole year to organize and create this grassroots army instead of a matter of months, it will be interesting to see how well this group does.  If they could somehow be even more effective in the midterms than Hucks Army was in the primary, that could be quite a feather in the cap of the former governor from Hope.